Medical students experience mistreatment, with a focus on gender discrimination. Cross-sectional study at one Swedish medical school

Figures & data

Table

	Mistreatment=0	Mistreatment=1
Exposed=0 (reference)	n00	n01
Exposed=1	n10	n11

Table 1. The basic characteristic of the study population stratified into preclinical and clinical students and females and males. The differences between females and males were assessed by Chi-squared test. A P-value <0.05 was considered significant

	Preclinical		P-value	Clinical		P-value
	Females (n = 106)	Males (n = 53)		Females (n = 192)	Males (n = 102)
Total	77%	33%	<0.001	75%	35%	<0.001
Age groups (years) < 20 20–25 26–30 >30	6% 83% 4% 7%	10% 70% 10% 11%	0.107	0 66% 27% 7%	0 64% 28% 8%	0.782
Born in Sweden Other Nordic countries Europe Outside Europe Do not want to answer	74% 3% 4% 9% 10%	72% 6% 6% 8% 8%	0.335	71% 14% 4% 2% 9%	77% 5% 1% 1% 16%	0.049
Function disability	8%	9%	0.92	4%	4%	1.00
Sexual orientation Hetero Homo Bi-sexual Did not answer	69% 3% 12% 6%	72% 4% 8% 7%	0.837	73% 3% 12% 12%	71% 4% 4% 12%	0.278

Figure 1. The proportion of students who reported discrimination due to gender, gender harassment, or sexual harassment stratified by legal gender and preclinical or clinical semester of studies. The difference between females and males was analyzed with the Chi2 test.

Table 2. The number and percentage of medical students reporting different perpetrators and the moment where the sexual harassment occurred in the medical school. The differences between females and males are presented by p-values

		Other student	Supervisor/ teacher	Medical doctor	Nurse and other healthcare personnel categories	Patient
Preclinical	Females (n = 106)	6 (6)	6 (6)	9 (9)	12 (11)	10 (9)
	Males (n = 53)	1 (2)	1 (2)	2 (4)	5 (9)	3 (6)
	P-value	0.31	0.31	0.29	0.74	0.44
Clinical	Females (n = 192)	15 (8)	20 (10)	96 (50)	23 (12)	22 (12)
	Males (n = 102)	1 (1)	1 (1)	19 (19)	0	5 (5)
	P-value	0.01	<0.01	<0.01	-	0.03

Figure 2. The proportion of students reporting experiences of different gender and sexually harassing behaviors over time (2002, 2013, 2020). Mean slider scale scores were calculated to summarize the frequency of these behaviors: never (0), one (1), or several times (2).

Table 3. The proportion of students who reported discrimination due to other grounds than gender. The table is stratified by gender and preclinical or clinical semester of studies. The difference between females and males was analyzed with the Chi2 test

	Preclinical		P-value	Clinical		P-value	URM	Not URM	P-value
	Female (n = 106)	Male (n = 53)		Female (n = 192)	Male (n = 102)
Experienced discrimination due to age	10%	8%	0.79	14%	11%	0.83	22%	12%	0.03
Observed discriminated due to age	14%	23%	0.24	21%	19%	1.0	34%	20%	0.42
Experienced discrimination due to sexual orientation	5%	3%	0.39	4%	3%	0.85	8%	2%	<0.01
Observed discrimination due to sexual orientation	6%	6%	>0.99	7%	3%	0.34	8%	8%	0.70
Experienced discrimination due to religion	7%	2%	0.37	6%	8%	0.64	22%	4%	<0.01
Observed discrimination due to religion	13%	8%	0.43	19%	10%	0.12	40%	11%	0.03
Experienced discrimination due to country of birth	11%	11%	>0.99	13%	8%	0.43	36%	3%	<0.01
Observed discrimination due to country of birth	30%	13%	0.04	43	25.5	0.02	49%	32%	0.51
Experienced discrimination due to function disability	5%	2%	0.66	4%	3%	0.95	48%	1%	<0.01
Observed discrimination due to function disability	9%	4%	0.34	12%	4%	0.06	44%	8%	<0.01
Observed discrimination due to sexual identity	7%	8%	>0.99	8%	4%	0.40	—	7%	—-

URM =Underrepresented minority defined as age > 30; homo- or bisexual; identified with religion; country of birth Sweden and other countries than Sweden or having a functional disability.

Table

Questions	Possible answers
Semester of studies	1 2 3 4 (pre-clinical) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 (clinical)
Legal sex (defined as your gender in the Swedish population register)	Female Male
Self-reported gender (defined as gender you identify with)	Woman Man No binary or other
Age group (years)	<20 20–25 26–30 >30
Born in	Sweden Other Nordic countries Europe outside Europe Do not want to answer
Functional disability	Yes No If “Yes,” specify in free text … … .
Sexual orientation	Hetero Homo Bi-sexual Did not answer
Identified with transgender identity	Yes No
Being identified with religion	Yes No
Experienced gender discrimination in the medical school	Yes No
Observed other students being discriminated against due to gender in the medical school	Yes No
Heard about other students being discriminated against due to gender in the medical school	Yes No
Being favored due to gender in the medical school	Yes No
Observed other students being favored due to gender in the medical school	Yes No
Experienced gender harassment in the medical school	Yes No
Experienced sexual harassment in the medical school	Yes No
Experienced discrimination due to age	Yes No
Observed discriminated due to age	Yes No
Experienced discrimination due to sexual orientation	Yes No
Observed discrimination due to sexual orientation	Yes No
Experienced discrimination due to religion	Yes No
Observed discrimination due to religion	Yes No
Experienced discrimination due to ethnicity	Yes No
Observed discrimination due to ethnicity	Yes No
Experienced discrimination due to function disability	Yes No
Observed discrimination due to function disability	Yes No
Observed discrimination due to sexual identity	Yes No
I experienced/was … … … due to my gender (indicate if you have experienced it once or at least twice at the medical school; you can select one or several types of experiences)	being ignored not being respected being ridiculed being denied rightful help/services stereotypical statements condescending comments unwelcome comments on clothes/appearance sexually offensive comments being pointed out as a sexual object unwelcomed touch sexually offensive jokes request for sexual services
Perpetrator of sexual harassment in the medical school was … .(you can indicate one or several perpetrators)	other students lecturer/teacher medical doctor nurse or other medical personnel